Tried to set new Alignment, guy said NOGO...

[imorb1994]

Here is a picture of the "flag". If this is still on, they didn't set the camber.

I guess my alignment guy needs to be shot then cause i don't have this and according to the sheet they gave me it doesn't meet the specs

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

There you go. You can get a couple tenths adjustment out of those. The first 2 alignments I had were with the flags still on and they got the camber down to just like you said, around -0.7. Getting the flags off wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I had to use an air cut off tool and cold chisel. One of the shops I went to was telling me that they had to order a "camber kit" and that there was "no camber cam under the flag"........ right...

[DOOM]

Wow i never knew getting an alignment could be this complicated

[GordonB]

Carfixer,
Thank you for posting a pic of the 'flag'. My '04 was done to best effort, but I was told that there was not much adjustment left -- Front is all stock and has 51K miles. My '03 has 10K more miles and I got no such comment. I'll look for the 'flags' myself when I do the next 2 oil changes. Easy to spot either way.
GordonB

[MinnesotaMuscle]

Ok guys, we went at it again, the flags had already been removed.....and there were cams there, with them maxed out we still couldn't get any better than .7 with the camber.... It does look like if I removed the cams I could get enough out of it to get it to work, but will the whole thing stay together and not move without the cams there? The guy was great and explained everything...just not sure what else to do......

[Black_Noise]

you got a dirty rack!

[Midnight]

What are the specific spec's that i should hand to my mechanic to have it aligned. their prob on here somewhere.. but i cant find them. could someone fill me in?

[MM03MOK]

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/revie...cat.php/cat/19

Found in the Reviews section (link in the navigation bar at the top of each page.)

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

No you can not take the cams off!!!!! Is your car lowered? The only explanation for running out of alignment with the stock suspension would be a lowered car. On these cars stock, you have enough adjustment w/ the camber cams to go into the positive camber territory. If you can't do that, something is not right.

[MinnesotaMuscle]

Nope not lowered, this is driving me crazy as the tire on the drivers side are now showing cords.....DANG this is irritating....I'm going to buy new tires and put in front struts at the same time...hopefully Carfixer or someone else responds to my new thread....I'm ready to drill out the holes to give 'em more adjustment if this goes on anylonger....

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I don't know, with the flags off on my car you could go way past -1.5 degrees, or go into + territory. I would take it to a totally different shop and start over. Someone is doing something wrong there to not be able to get the camber close to zero.

See the cam in the picture above (the one with the comment, that's a dirty rack?) That cam is almost in the middle of the range. The fattest part of the lobe is pointing down. If you rotate it clockwise, the fat part of the lobe will push the control arm inward, causing increasingly positive camber. If you turn it counterclockwise, it will push the lower arm out and cause increasingly negative camer. Where that hole is drilled, is the factory hole where they pin it to install everything. If you line that hole in the cam up with the hole in the flag (which puts the hole in the cam in the 6 o clock position), that should be around negative 1.0 camber. See if your cams are in a similar position.

[DOOM]

here you go High-C

[DOOM]

can someone please for the love of god make this a sticky???

[High-C]

here you go High-C

Thanks my brother... I appreciate your help once again.

[Windsor58]

Question for the alignment gurus - I had mine done a little over a week ago using the spec from here. After a few days, the steering wheel started getting crooked. I didn't hit any potholes or curbs or anything. Took it back today, and they said one cam was loose. Talked a bit more and found out that they did not put the "tabs" back on. Said they got too messed up trying to get them off. They said they didn't think they needed to be on there. I have my doubts. What say you?

This pic in the thread above shows the tab that I am talking about - the one with the red arrows pointing to it.